Just as the spotlight of the national media focused
on Representative Martin Meehan's efforts in support of the Shays-Meehan
campaign finance reform bill in the
U.S. House, Speaker of the Massachusetts House Tom Finneran surprised
national, state and local political leaders by springing a plan to split
the reformer's base of support.
The plan would redraw the lines of U.S. Congressional districts
redistributing the towns in Meehan's 5th District among five other
districts. In announcing the plan, Finneran
said he had assumed that Meehan would be a candidate for governor and thus
unconcerned with the fate of his district.

Last week Meehan visited both Finneran and State
Senate President Thomas Birmingham, asking them to keep the district intact
regardless of whether he decides to
run for re-election to Congress. Then on Monday, July 23, he announced his
intention to seek re-election to Congress, citing unfinished business,
including campaign
finance reform. Earlier Finneran had told reporters and others that he
would reconsider the proposal if Meehan decides to run for re-election to
Congress. Legislators on Beacon
Hill are "holding their breath" waiting for the next move.

Finneran's goals and motives

Finneran and his supporters maintain the proposed
new districts have more political and geographic "coherence" than
the current districts, which Boston
Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby last week said are "among the ugliest
things in US politics."

The Speaker says the proposal tries to accomplish
three goals: to create a congressional seat for southeastern Massachusetts,
where towns near I-495 have
grown dramatically; to create a "majority-minority" district and
to protect incumbents. It is impossible to achieve all three goals,
Finneran has asserted. He further
justifies dismantling the current 5th district stating that his proposal
will unite "communities of interest," like the so-called
"Route 2" district Carlisle would join.

Reporters and columnists over the last week have
echoed the belief of "political observers" and
"sources" that Finneran's motive in eviscerating the 5th district
was revenge for Meehan's national and local advocacy of campaign finance
reform. Meehan has strongly criticized Finneran and other state leaders for
failing to support
the Clean Elections Law overwhelmingly approved by voters in a 1998
statewide referendum. Thomas Edsall in the Washington Post quotes Finneran
as saying he will
"do anything and everything I can to stop" public financing.
Edsall further described Meehan as the "latest victim of a specialty
of Massachusetts politics, the skewering
of Democrats by Democrats."

Where is Carlisle?

Under Finneran's plan, Meehan's home city of
Lowell, Lawrence, and other towns would become part of the 6th district,
pitting him in an uphill fight against
another incumbent, Democratic congressman John Tierney of Salem. Carlisle
and a number of surrounding towns would be placed in a new 4th district,
lumped together
with Cambridge, parts of Back Bay and Beacon Hill, Waltham, Newton, and
Concord and other west suburban towns (see box). Other towns in Meehan's
current district
would join the first, third and seventh districts, now represented by
Edward Markey of Malden, James McGovern of Worcester, and John Olver of
Amherst.

Local reaction

When contacted for comment, Carlisle's legislative
representatives, Senator Susan Fargo (D) and Representative Carol Cleven
(R), emphasized that "the story is
not over." Both Cleven and Fargo are completely opposed to the
Finneran plan. "The 5th has been a cohesive district for over 100
years," said Fargo. "Relationships
between towns have developed and it's just a shame to break that up."
Cleven spoke of a good working relationship with Meehan. "Meehan has
been responsive and has worked
well [with her] on constituent concerns."

Meehan's support of local issues was echoed by
Carlisle Selectman Vivian Chaput who remembered that Meehan was
"tremendously helpful in getting funding" for
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to purchase the O'Rourke farm. She
will "truly regret not being in his district and we appreciate all his
actions in behalf of the town."

However Concord representative Cory Atkins, a
member of the House redistricting committee charged with drawing
redistricting plan, was quoted in the
Concord Journal as praising Finneran's plan for keeping "communities
of interest" together and creating a southeastern Massachusetts seat.
According to the same article, Atkins
felt Meehan's "mixed messages" on whether he would run for
governor had made him "vulnerable."

It's not over

The state Senate is also due to propose a plan, but
this will not be ready before September, as the Senate awaits preliminary
work by the towns and the outcome of
the September 11 primary to choose a candidate to replace the late Joe
Moakley in the 9th congressional district, according to state house
sources. Eventually, sometime in
early fall, the issue will go to a joint conference committee consisting of
three members each from the House and the Senate, two from the majority
party and one from minority.

"You will get a lot of headlines out of this
[the redistricting]," said Fargo. "Nothing is decided," said
Cleven.